The dog’s bark grew louder as he closed the metal door. Usually, it was the other way round. During drunken Thursday nights, the dogs would chase him back home, as if to communicate that his lack of discipline for the everyday toil needed a vocal punishment. But, he cared little. Today was different; it was Saturday, and a break meant a solitary walk on the labyrinthine streets of the city.
As he got out of the galli and entered a bigger road, he sensed an aroma of a nearby bakery. What was being baked was unknown but the scent carried a delicate note of toasted chocolate. How he wished he could barge in, slide his fingers across the chocolate, and savor a delicate lick. But no one could pull such a daring act in the city. Besides, his grey t-shirt still had a golden stain from last night’s curry. Every slurp comes with a risk and very little reward.
The monsoon was at its peak and, despite the possibility of worshipping the rain god, he refused to adhere to a dogma he considered lazy. He, personally, could have ignored it, but traditions of family bare deep seeds in a person’s soul and out of all the people in the world, he knew that such stringent social truths could never be ignored. A walk was a walk and rain, he believed, should be the last of one’s worries. But Gods, too, are Gods and rain, too, is rain.
And so it started drizzling. It would rain for seven days and seven nights. Yet, how could a mere mortal, a youngling at that, predict the future? He had to rush inside the bakery, as there were no other establishments nearby, except for a house under construction. He ran inside before the drizzle turned into an outpour. And there it was – a chocolate doughnut.
“What the hell?” he thought. “People worship the rain Gods. Licking a doughnut is no different.” He proceeded to take off the top half of the doughnut and smeared his index finger across the thick layer of chocolate. He licked it. The waiter continued to stare, frozen by the act he had witnessed. The rain kept raining. The dogs had stopped barking. Only a faint, small black spot remained on his cheek, to the right of his lips.
Ishan Mainali 